Former employee sentenced for credit union theft

A woman has been sentenced to 21 months in prison for embezzling from a local credit union, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office.

John Richmeier

A woman has been sentenced to 21 months in prison for embezzling from a local credit union, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Carla Welborn was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan. As part of her sentence, she was ordered to pay $329,702 in restitution, according to information from James Cross, spokesman for the U.S. attorney of Kansas.

The crime occurred between January 2009 and January 2012 while Welborn worked at the Credit Union of Leavenworth County at the Eisenhower VA Medical Center in Leavenworth.

In November, Welborn pleaded guilty to the single count of embezzlement from a credit union.

According to a written plea agreement in the case, Welborn took money from the vault of the credit union's branch office on the VA grounds.

She also reportedly targeted the accounts of credit union members who didn't receive monthly balance statements as well as those who lived out of town or were ill. She redirected mailed statements so account holders wouldn't notice they were missing funds.

If affected account holders requested statements, she sent them fraudulent documents, according to the written plea agreement.